Near 8 months before Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) removed two senior leaders, state legislature party leader Lalji Verma and former state party president Ramachal Rajbhar from the party for anti-party activities.
Verma and Rajbhar, both senior OBC ministers in the erstwhile Mayawati government, are legislators from Ambedkar Nagar district of East UP.
This comes after the party’s bleak presentation in recently concluded Panchayat elections in the state. BSP performed badly in the panchayat elections, finishing at third after BJP and SP.
Official BSP statement on Thursday said, both the MLAs have been ousted for performing anti-party activities during the panchayat elections and the two time MLA from Mubarkpur seat of Azamgarh area Shah Alam ‘Guddu Jamali’ has been designated the new leader in the party in the Vidhan Sabha.
The move expects more impact as it has occurred around 8 months before the state assembly elections. The two ousted leaders have apparently been in contact with Akhilesh Yadav-led SP for recent couple of months.
So far BSP has seen 11 of its 19 MLAs turn rebel in UP. BSP had won 19 seats in 2017 assembly elections.
Aslam Raini, one of the 11 dissident BSP MLAs, named the most recent removal of the two senior BSP leaders from the party as the precursor about the end of the party in the state it administered somewhere from 2007 to 2012. He accused party national general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra for repeated removal and suspension of senior leaders from the party.
Raini, the administrator from Bhinga seat of East UP’s Shrawasti district was among the seven MLAs suspended by party supremo Mayawati for resistance in the 2020 Rajya Sabha elections.
